dear 2011,

What a year it has been! I was just looking through all my iPhoto albums from this year and between my fancy cam and my iPhone I’ve documented this year more than any other. I am more than lucky to have the people I love in my life, with a job that makes me smile and a beautiful city at my fingertips, I’d say this is more than enough to be thankful for.

This blog has come a long way in a year too. I’m more in love with this community than ever and am happy to be a part of it more every day. I have made many connections in Boston and have friendships that stretch across the country. How amazing, I can’t help but think, that I can read blogs at any point of the day because I have friends in different time zones.

Dear Friend started as a way for me to update my friends and family on what’s happening in Boston and was a place for me to save favorite things, but in a year has become something a little more. I am more connected than ever, to myself and to others, and this is a place where I can share my thoughts, ideas, and memories with not only my family and friends, but the world. I’m still finding my voice as a writer, but it’s fun to discover the process. I’ve realized the best way for me to write is to just simply be me, and write like I would talk, as if we were having a conversation over brunch. And so, this is what you get here, a voice that is truly me and how I am. So should you ever end up meeting me for brunch in real life (and I hope we do), you’ll already have a friend in me.

If you are newer around here, or have been around for awhile (and I thank you from the bottom of my soul) I’ve tried to go back and look through my 2011 posts and find the ones that are my favorite, the ones that are the most “me” and the most sincere.

It was fun looking back and was a nice salute to 2011. There were lots of posts I had gone and forgotten about so it was good to go back and re-read. And reading them again long after I’ve written them makes me look at them from a different perspective too. I can’t believe how much is here, how much I have written and recorded. Memories that would simply be forgotten if they were not etched here, on this blog, for all to read and remember.

Here are some of my favorite posts from this year:

Sunday in Harvard Square

Marathon Monday

Master of Education

Boston Bloggers Picnic

Kisses for Hope

On Traveling

Cheers!

Thoughts on Reconnecting

For My Dad

Summer Bucket List

Remembering

On Happiness

Keeping in Touch

Words

My first VLOG

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, thanks so much for being here, for taking the time to read and connect. Thanks for saying hi, and for your comments and emails. They means more to me than most of you know.

Goodbye, 2011!! Thanks for the memories!

And happy New Year, dear friends. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

guest post: on beaktweets today!

I’m guest posting for Claire over at Beaktweets today about my hopes and dreams for 2012…

When Claire asked me to write a guest post I got really excited.

“Yes, of course!,” I replied. And my smile was as wide as the distance we are apart (that’s east coast to west coast wide).

And so ensued me thinking about what to write. Hopes and Dreams for 2012 was my prompt. So I sat (and I sat) and I thought (and I thought) and then I just started writing. And what came out of it was a list of things that I want to remember. These are my hopes and dreams because these things are important to me.

And I hope they speak to you a little too.

Take a look!

   

{image source}

sunday.

It’s completely, ridiculously Christmas up in here.

This is a fact.

95% at leeeeast.

And I’m 100% ok with it.

Yesterday I captured my day in photos by taking a picture an hour. I saw this recently over at Beaktweets and she saw it on Bleubird (which I just discovered and will now be stalking regularly). It was fun! Overall, it was a pretty uneventful day and a lot of my morning was filled with wrapping Christmas presents, but with the records spinning and the endless Christmas movies being popped into the DVD player it was easy to crank out all the wrapping.

Today after school I’m participating in a cookie swap at work, and after debating over which kind to make I resorted back to my mom’s sugar cookies. They are just too good to quit. Plus they always get rave reviews, which is what I’m going for. Tryin’ to be the life of the party.

Anyways, enough babbling. Here it goes… my day in pictures:

How was your weekend? Did you get everything done that you needed to for the 25th? One more week! It’s coming up so fast and this makes my heart happier than happy. I’ll be spending Christmas this year with my parents down at my grandmothers house in Connecticut. I can’t wait for the joy and love and relaxation. It’s going to be perfect, I can just feel it in my bones.

Happy Monday!

10 little {aeb} things!

Hi all! It’s FRIDAY! And it’s time for another link-up with the fabulous E Tells Tales.

Friday also means it’s the weekend and I can see the light.

Normally I do my Things I Saw, Things I Love segment on Fridays, but I thought I’d try 10 little things this time just for fun. Here’s a little recap of what I’ve been up to this week:

1. I started this book club at school about a month ago. A children’s literature book club– because we all like children’s lit (duh). We basically read young adult novels and then get together over tea and crumpets to talk about the novel. SUCH a good idea, right? Except I slacked this month I didn’t finish the book in time. #majorfail

My excuse was “the holidays”, but that was a lame excuse that even I can’t totally believe.

Do you think they’ll let me back in?

I sure hope so.

It’s times like these I think I sometimes put too much on my plate. Like, chill, Anna, you don’t have to do everything. 

2. My sister and I went to see the Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker on Tuesday and the short of it is that it was a DREAM.

Here’s the long of it:

My sister and I both used to dance when we were younger. Like, for reals dance, with pointe shoes and everything. And we were in the Nutcracker! For three or four years in a row at least. We started off as dolls, and then played soldiers and mice, and then, when we got really good, or at least as good as we could get we were flowers. As in the waltz of the flowers. We rocked it back in the day and seeing it again was amazing.

{photo credit: Rachel Papo}

3. I desperately need to write out my Christmas cards. I got some fun ones from Paper Source and I’ve just been pushing the task to the side for weeks.

Do you write Christmas cards?

It’s the one time of year I really try my darndest to get letters out to the people I love. Usually, right around this time I am frantically emailing friends trying to find out their address. This is because 1) I am horrible at keeping the addresses I got last year in an easy-to-access location and 2) people are always moving on me!

It’s too bad too because it’s fun to get a Christmas card out of the blue. Asking someone their address completely ruins the secret, but it’s how I roll and that’s just the way it’s gonna be.

4. Wednesday night I went to the Boston Bloggers Holiday Fiesta party and met loads of bloggers. It’s a little overwhelming attending one of those things by yourself, and it was only my second time at a blogger event, but I have to say I always enjoy them. It’s nice to meet new bloggers and the BEST part is meeting bloggers that you’ve been following for awhile that have also been following you. I finally met Clair, who’s been around this here blog for awhile now and it was SO nice! I honestly felt like we were already friends, which is such a terrific feeling– can’t wait til our next get together!

{photo via Ms. City Fit!}

Here is just a taste of some of the bloggers I met:

Clair from Finding Clairity

Alison from Long Distance Loving

Smita from Hogger & Co. 

Kacy from Height of Style

Laura from Little Bit of Lacquer

Emily from So Anthro 

Sarah from Hemenway Street 

5. Speaking of meeting bloggers, me and Elizabeth had a Skype date last night. I can pretty much sum it up in three words: I LOVED IT. This thing called blogging, it’s real life. Before I talked to E, she was sort of unreal to me. Real, but unreal, if you know what I mean. Just a girl that I liked, on the internets, blogging about things that were awesome. But the thing about E is that she’s just so darn approachable. She really cares about people, and I dig that. And now I think it’s safe to say we’re friends. Like, real life friends. For REALS.

And I’m psyched!

If you asked me a year ago if I thought I’d have a friend in Alabama that I’d meet through blogging, instagram, and the twitter my answer would be NO.

But look at that, I do now. And it’s sweeeeeet.

6. Zan and I have been TV shopping for the past couple of weeks. It’s going to be our Christmas present to each other and we’re having a time of it.

I like to just buy whatever looks good.

Zan likes to research the heck out of it.

So, we’re working on it. I’ll let you know what we decide if we ever decide.

7. How fun is this fur scarf my sister got as a gift the other day? IN LOVE!

I’ve been wanting a fur vest for awhile now. It’s completely trendy, and I’ve fallen for it.

{vest at j.crew outlet}

8. My cousin Timmy and his lady Katie just got engaged this week! This means a Burns Family wedding is in the near future and this makes me UBER happy.

There is nothin’ better than a Burns Family wedding, people.

Nothin’!

9. Yesterday was Pajama Day at school. My kids filled up a jar with cotton balls (for good behavior, showing kindness, and the like) and that was their reward.

Ahh, the simplicity of being 6.

I wore my PJ’s too in case you were wondering.

 

10. And because I just don’t have anything more to say, here’s a mini video of me jammin’ out to Flo Rida.

Ever since my friend Melanie told me about this song I can’t stop listen to that beat. And it’s just been one of those weeks where things are turning up on the bright side. Love ’em when they’re like that.

 

HAPPY FRIDAY!